YOUNGSTOWN — City council will meet Feb. 11 to start discussing how it will fill the vacant 6th Ward seat.

The responsibility of filling the seat falls to city council because the Mahoning County Democratic Party is unable to have a quorum of central committee members from the ward meet to find a successor to Anita Davis. Davis, a Democrat, resigned with two years left on her term Jan. 1 to become council president.

State law requires the county party to have up to 45 days to appoint, so city council cannot make its selection until at least Feb. 15. State law doesn’t prohibit council from discussing a replacement before that date.

State law also requires city council to make a selection no later than 30 days after the expiration of the county political party’s 45 days. That deadline is March 17.

If council cannot come to a decision, the appointment is made by the mayor, Derrick McDowell, an independent who has served a little more than a month in the position.

Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward and the legislative body’s president pro tempore, pushed at Wednesday’s council meeting for a discussion next week on the process.

“The clock is ticking,” Ray said. “Next week, we’ll figure out the process we want to do and we have a couple of weeks to follow through.”

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, agreed, saying, “We should do it as soon as possible.”

Council will meet Feb. 11 to discuss the process of finding a 6th Ward council member and to talk about the 2026 budget.

Ray said of council’s responsibility: “It’s pretty cut and dry. If the political process isn’t utilized because of a lack of a quorum, it goes to us.”

The person selected would fill the ward seat until Dec. 31, 2027, with a November 2027 election for a full four-year term.

City council members last got to fill a vacancy on the body in April 1998 when Herman Hill was removed as the 3rd Ward council member.

Because Hill was an independent, the replacement wasn’t done by a political party, but by the council members.

Hill was convicted in 1997 of theft in office for using a fake receipt to cover up his using a city credit card to withdraw more than $2,400 to buy a computer for his personal use.

Hill appealed and was ultimately removed from council in April 1998.

City council — all six members were Democrats — in 1998 appointed Republican Richard Atkinson to replace Hill. Atkinson won the 1999 and the 2003 elections for the 3rd Ward position.

FIRST READINGS

Councilwoman Amber White, I-7th Ward, who has missed at least four meetings in the past seven months, was absent at Wednesday’s council meeting.

Because of that, council could only give first readings to legislation rather than seek to pass it by emergency. To pass legislation by emergency, at least six votes are needed.

Among the items getting first readings Wednesday were four different pieces of legislation to address Youngstown’s lead waterline issues.

One item would permit the board of control to apply for a loan of up to $13 million from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Supply Revolving Loan Account for a project that would replace the water main line on Glenwood Avenue from Midlothian Boulevard to Almyra Avenue on the South Side and eliminate about 800 lead service lines off the street.

Another ordinance seeks council’s permission to let the board of control advertise for bids and enter into a contract for the Crandall Park water main on Gypsy Lane from Logan to Goleta avenues and the replacement of about 470 lead waterlines on Fifth Avenue, Tod Lane, Belmont Avenue and Gypsy Lane.

City council also gave a first reading to an ordinance to increase the appropriation to $8,896,799 for the Buckeye Plat water main and lead line replacement project on the city’s southeast side.

The project will be finished later this year. It includes replacing the water main and lead lines to more than 720 homes in the neighborhood.

A fourth ordinance getting a first reading would accept a $500,000 grant from the Ohio EPA’s Drinking Water Assistance Fund Program to help with the city’s lead line replacement program.

The water department will use the funding to purchase new copper pipes to replace 229 lead lines throughout the city.